The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man
by PK Samurai
Summary: [AU] The violent loss of his home forces a young earthbender to seek out his destiny.
1. The Third Earthbender

**The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man**

Chapter 1: "The Third Earthbender"

* * *

 **A/N:** This is a fusion of Daiya no Ace and ATLA, namely using DnA characters in the ATLA universe. The story is crafted in such a way that readers do not need to have explicitly read either DnA or ATLA, as the rules of the universe are explained in-text.

Furthermore, while the names and characteristics of DnA characters will be used in the story, since they will not be Japanese high schoolers playing baseball, but rather have wildly varying circumstances surrounding their births, their personalities may divert from the canon.

In other words: You don't need to have read Daiya no Ace or ATLA. Characters from DnA may be OOC (but will still hopefully retain recognizable traits from canon).

* * *

 _Upturned chunks of scorched earth. Billowing black smoke and burning fires. Acrid air. Red streams of water._

 _A tired voice echoes across the battle-torn valley:_

 _"I'm sorry…I failed to bring peace...There wasn't enough time."_

* * *

His eyes flashed open.

The floor was trembling around him. Lying stock still on his pallet, he stared up at the hut ceiling. Dust scattered down onto his face. Was it an earthquake? But as soon as he'd thought that, the shaking stopped.

Getting up, he reached out and opened the door a crack. Just outside, he could see the bulls grazing on the grass. One of them turned a sleepy, uncaring gaze toward him before returning back to its meal. Considering the racket they raised if one so much as stepped a foot out of place around them, he must have imagined the earthquake.

So why was his heart beating so quickly? He'd been dreaming about something, he knew. Something he'd dreamed about many times before. But he could never recall exactly what it was. It faded away as soon as he woke up, and the only thing he could recall was a strange aching sense of familiarity.

Even as he thought about it however, the feeling had already begun to fade, and with a shake of his head, he got up. Folding up his pallet, he stretched and then slid the door open the rest of the way. The sky was bleached in red and purple from the rising sun. Taking in the vivid colors, once again, a lingering image of flowing red water flashed through his mind—when suddenly, he heard his mother call out his name:

" ** _Eijun!_** Don't forget you're supposed to feed the ostrich horses today!"

With a clatter—he _had_ forgotten—Eijun stumbled and rushed out to the coops.

"Put on your sandals, you foolish boy," his grandfather called out from the stable.

* * *

He was a boy like any other. Born into an innocuous family of farmers on the southwestern coast of the Earth Kingdom, the word 'kingdom' might as well have been a foreign word, for it meant nothing to the people where he lived. Compared to the other nations, the Earth Kingdom was diverse, and above all, scattered. Outside of great cities such as Ba Sing Se and Omashu, its citizens were only united in that they happened to live on the same sprawling land mass and spoke the same language.

Every now and then, traders and travelers passed through their village. They brought with them news of battles of unbelievable scale—of men and women who could bend the four elements to their will in the most destructive of ways. But to the people in the village, they were mere tales to be passed around the evening fire or to scare the little ones into not straying too far from their paddy fields. To them, the words 'unrest' and 'conflict' held about as much meaning as 'kingdom.'

At least, not until the foreign ships beached on the shore, their blue flags waving from masts that were just barely visible over the dense treetops.

* * *

It wasn't until they'd sat down for lunch that day that Eijun noticed a body was missing.

He looked around. "Where's dad?"

"Did you forget?" His mother set a bowl on the table. "They've been talking about it for all of last week. He and some of the other men are going hunting for hog today."

While the hogs around their area were too wild to tame, they made the perfect game for whenever they wanted some meat besides chicken and bull.

"Hog?" Looking down at the mixture of mushrooms and greens in his stew, at the thought of fresh red meat, Eijun could feel his mouth already begin to water. "For everybody?"

His mother smiled knowingly. "Akio's mother just had the baby, and I reckon her husband will want to get a larger share of the intestines for her…but yes, for everybody."

Eijun perked up. "Do you think they'll be back by tonight?"

His grandfather snorted into his tea. "Don't be silly. I reckon it'll probably take a few days,"

Pushing his food around on the plate, Eijun said, "I wish I could've gone with dad on the hunt."

"That's much too dangerous at your age," said his mother. "You'll have to wait longer for that, Eijun."

"How _much_ longer?"

"Until you remember to wear your sandals for once," said his grandfather.

Eijun frowned and finished his stew in silence.

True, he didn't like to wear his sandals, but that was because he preferred to walk around barefoot; he'd always loved the feel of dirt against his skin. But of course his grandfather didn't understand that. In fact, he almost never had a kind word for him. He only ever told him to do this and that, and slapped Eijun on the head when he made a mistake.

Wakana's grandfather on the other hand was much nicer—he always gave Eijun a bit of sweetened rice cake when he came by their house. Not for the first time, Eijun wished Wakana's grandfather was his instead.

After helping his mother clean up, Eijun had just put on his sandals and walked outside, when he ran into two of his friends sneaking on tip toes past the coops.

"Wakana's 'it' right now," Akio explained in a hushed voice.

Eijun understood immediately: Hide-and-seek was one of those games that they often liked to play.

"Hurry up and find a spot," Nobu whispered, before scurrying past into the thicket.

Eijun knew just where he wanted to hide. Turning on his heel, he raced to find the tree with the curving trunk just by the shore. It was one of his favorite hiding spots, and he was rarely found there because none of the others liked climbing. But just like how Eijun liked the feel of dirt below his feet, he had never minded feeling the wind on his face.

As he passed by the paddies, he saw that some of the adults had come back from their breaks and resumed tilling the earth. Streams of water glistened from the fields which would soon be ready for rice planting.

His stomach grumbled, despite the fact that he'd just stuffed himself full at lunch. He couldn't wait for the harvest season to arrive: Rice tasted best when the grain was freshly picked.

"Excited for some sausages, Eijun?" Nobu's uncle called out as he bended a rock out of the earth.

"Shh!" Eijun hissed back, raising a finger to his lips.

Immediately, Nobu's uncle smiled in understanding and snapped a smart salute back, before returning to his work.

Nobu's uncle was one of three earthbenders in the village, the other being Wakana's grandfather. _Earthbending_ , the ability to control matter related to the earth, was a highly treasured and invaluable skill, and the two benders did the vast majority of the village's farming. In fact, it was the main reason why Nobu's uncle, despite being a relatively young man, hadn't gone on the hunt with Eijun's father and the others.

It was also the reason why Eijun, the _third_ earthbender in the village, hadn't told anyone that he was one. Whether it was his parents, his friends, even his grandfather—no one knew. It was his greatest secret. He'd only discovered it himself the previous summer, when he'd fallen off a tree he'd been climbing and bended a rock out of the way by accident. It was difficult to find privacy for long in their small village, and he had only been able to try bending a few more times since then.

Still, it was a small price to pay in exchange for his freedom. He didn't feel too guilty keeping his bending secret; he told himself he would reveal the secret later on, when he was a bit older, and then help the village with the farming.

* * *

With ease, Eijun soon found the tree he'd been searching for. It was tall, but the twisting trunk made it easier to climb than it looked. That didn't mean that it was an easy climb; just the last summer, old lady Mao had fallen from it while trying to get to her cat, and broken her hip. Unlike old lady Mao however, Eijun was young and limber, and after taking off his sandals, he clambered up its side quickly, his hands and feet easily finding footholds.

Before long, he was at the top of the tree. With a wide grin, Eijun looked around. The forest stretched to his left and right. Behind him were the fields and their village. And in front of him was the sea. It was blue and vast and stretched far into the horizon. As far as Eijun knew, that was the end of the world. There was hardly anything there.

But at that moment, he suddenly realized with a flash, there _was_ something there.

He didn't know what they were at first—he'd seen some ships passing by in the distance before, but never one this up close. He hadn't realized how _big_ they were. On a curious whim, Eijun slid back down the tree, and as he did so, he heard brusque unfamiliar voices coming from the shore. The moment his feet touched the ground, the earth rang warningly below him, surprising Eijun. He'd never heard it sound like that way before.

That should have warned him then. If he'd listened to the earth's warning, maybe things would have turned out just a little differently. But Eijun had always been curious. He was always the first among the children to lead an expedition to find out which critter had been making that sound while they slept.

He was so small that they didn't notice him at first. 'Them' being the fifteen or so number of men dressed in blue skins and white pelts of animals he didn't recognize. They were nothing like the people he'd ever seen before: They were dark-skinned, bulky, scarred—some more than others—and without exception, they were all carrying what looked to Eijun like long sickles on their backs.

Something about the sickles made the pit of his stomach twist. While he'd come out to look at the ships, now, he couldn't look away from the blades, gleaming sickly in the sun. He began to back away, hoping the men wouldn't see him—but as though listening to his thoughts, one of the younger men suddenly pointed a finger straight at him. In response, the others immediately spun to look at him, their hands leaping for their sickles. Eijun felt his stomach flip-flop.

"Where'd you come from?" the young man asked, his voice smooth and silky in a way that sent a shiver down Eijun's spine.

Instead of responding, Eijun turned around to try and run. But before he could, he felt someone grab the neck of his shirt and roughly pull him up off his feet. More than a little frightened now, he kicked out. The grasp didn't budge.

" ** _Let me g – !_** " He broke off as the man holding him suddenly slapped his face. Winded and stunned from the sharp blow—even his grandfather had never hit him that hard before—Eijun stopped struggling and fell still.

"He must be one of the brats in that village nearby," he heard the man holding him say gruffly.

"What should we do?" said another man. "He's seen us."

The gruff man shook Eijun, who stayed mute. "I doubt he knows anything... Neither do we have the time, if we want to make the shipment."

"Even brats can talk," said the young man, a dangerous glint to his eye.

"An isolated village like this won't know anything, nor will they care."

The young man paused, clearly contemplating something. It was strange, Eijun thought despite the pounding of his heart, how the other men were paying him rapt attention despite how young he looked.

"No... I'll deal with him here."

It all happened in an instant. In a curious motion, the young man sliced the air in front of Eijun with a hand. He was wondering whether the man had somehow missed, when he saw something glinting swooping toward him. Letting out a yell, he twisted in the air and kicked out. The gruff man dropped him with a bark, and looking unsurprised, the young man raised another hand. Moving instinctively, Eijun dropped low to the ground, and made a pushing motion with his hands.

In response, a block of earth burst out of the ground and knocked the young man off of his feet. Eijun heard a sharp intake of breath from the other watching men.

"Well, well..." The young man got up to his feet looking only slightly winded. Wearing a strange, gleeful look on his face, he wiped a thin trickle of blood from the side of his mouth. At a gesture, two other men jumped out and grabbed Eijun by his arms and legs, preventing him from moving. "I'd thought they were just a bunch of barbarians not worth our time, but the boy's an _earthbender_. This changes things."

"I told you, Taiyou," said the gruff man. "The patrol's grown stricter lately around the coastline. Not to mention, we're already behind schedule as it is - "

The man called Taiyou waved an impatient hand. "Old man Ippachi can wait. And I doubt he'll mind, not when we've got earthbenders in our shipment."

"You fool," said the gruff man. "We don't know how many men are in their village. Nor do we know whether there are any more earthbenders. Is it worth the risk of our own men to capture free men?"

There was a sudden lull as the men began to murmur, looking at each other. It seemed to Eijun that for the moment, he'd been largely forgotten.

Taking advantage of the moment, he took in a deep breath, and then hollered out at the top of his lungs, " _ **Help! He** **-**_ " He broke off as another man clamped a beefy hand over his mouth.

But it was too late. There was a rustling in the nearby trees. The men raised their sickles in alarm.

A moment later, someone stepped out. Immediately, Eijun felt his heart begin to sink as he spotted a familiar pair of widened brown eyes: Wakana. Before he could try to shout out a warning from behind the hand, something suddenly burst out from the seaside and struck her by the side, flinging her body several feet to the side. Her short brown hair splayed around her head. She didn't move.

Even in the distance, Eijun could see the red liquid seeping from her side. He knew what that was; he'd seen it before on his knees and palms when he'd tripped on the stacked boulders just outside the coops after Nobu had dared him to. He'd seen even more of it a few months ago when his father last went out with the other men and brought back two hogs. They'd slaughtered it in the center of the village, at the Pit, and everyone had feasted that evening. It'd been delicious and the mood had been festive for several days following that.

Half-paralyzed, Eijun thought that the red pooling around Wakana was more like the latter.

All of a sudden, he realized that the men must have somehow reached a mutual decision, for they had all begun to move. He'd thought that with their heavy-looking clothes, their movements would be slow and clunky, but they slinked across the rocks on the beach as gracefully as any cat he'd ever seen. The gruff man who'd opposed Taiyou, with a shake of his head, joined them. The men who'd been holding Eijun let him go and joined them as well, leaving just Taiyou to pull Eijun roughly by the arm.

Eijun could have tried to earthbend again then and there, but somehow, he couldn't. He could only think about the red liquid coiling around Wakana's still body. As he did so, somehow, his feet automatically moved and he stumbled along with them.

* * *

The first person to see them was Wakana's grandfather. He'd been bending the earth to till the field, when the first men burst through the clearing. He had just enough time to widen his wrinkled eyes, before one of the men smashed the flat side of his sickle across his head. His expression stunned, his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, knees first. The impact of his body crumpling to the earth—Eijun felt the vibration of every pebble and particle of dirt run through his body and clench around his heart.

The next to see them was Nobu's uncle, and he fell in an instant too. Seeing that, his head felt so dizzy and heavy, Eijun dropped it, turning his aching eyes toward the ground instead. But he could still feel the tremors of the earth below, running straight through his body, painting an image so clear and vivid, he might as well have been watching without blinking the entire time. The earth had never before felt so alive to him. But at the same time, he'd never felt so distant from it in his entire life.

The men in the blue skins quickly took the two bodies, binding them in ropes of twine. Then, the gruff man slung each over his shoulders, and headed alone them back to the ship. The rest continued onward to the village, where, as they drew closer, Eijun could hear the usual bustling of the mid-afternoon activities. It didn't take long, however, before they noticed the strange men approaching with their sickles.

"Who are yo...?"

There was a whistling sound, like something sharp cutting through the air. Something dropped to the ground and shattered. A single fragment of a clay pot rolled toward the ground where Eijun's eyes were fixated on, and spun a few times before coming to a stop.

And then the screaming began. It was a horrible, pained keening sound that made Eijun desperately wish he could cover his ears, but he didn't. For as long as he lived, Eijun would never forget the sound.

Not so long afterwards, he heard the most terrible voice call out his name: " ** _Eijun!_** " It belonged to his mother.

The sound finally galvanized Eijun into action. He raised his head just in time to see one of the strange men striking her with their sickle. She collapsed.

" ** _Mom!_** " He tried to run towards her, and was forcibly stopped by the hand that'd been holding him, which yanked him back.

"Oh no you don't," said Taiyou.

Wide-eyed, Eijun watched as the strange men dragged the body of his unconscious mother away.

The entire village was thrown into chaos. The men in skins and pelts had charged into the houses with their sickles. There were furniture and bodies thrown indiscriminately onto the ground. The chickens were squawking riotously in their cages. Somewhere in the distance, a bull mooed mournfully.

There was a great shout; somehow, a small group of the village people had managed to assemble, led by the remaining men. Armed with pitchforks and shovels, they began charging towards the invaders. Eijun felt a light of hope flicker in his chest. But even as he watched, Taiyou let out a silky laugh and raised his arms. In response, with a crashing sound, what looked like whips of water broke out from the rice paddies and rose into the air. Eijun felt his eyes widen. _A waterbender?_ He had never seen one before. That, he realized belatedly, must have been what had struck Wakana. So you could do that with bending. He'd never realized...

At the sight of the water, the charging villagers had started to falter. In a terribly graceful manner, Taiyou swung his hands forward, sending the whips lashing out toward the group.

Standing at their center, he realized with a jolt, was his grandfather. But while the others began to yelp and scatter, instead of moving to escape, his grandfather looked straight at Eijun. "Get out of here!"

His heart thudded loudly in his ears. He looked down—indeed, his arm, though red and bruised, was now free. He stumbled forward, his legs still not feeling quite like his own. As the feeling began to return, he started to run—but towards his grandfather, not away. In the corner of his eye, he saw the whip of water cut cleanly through poor old lady Maya's head, and something red and grey spurted out in globules. His grandfather's eyes, darkening with despair, were focused on something behind Eijun, and he knew a whip must be coming in their direction.

Reaching his grandfather, Eijun wrapped his arms tightly around him. He screwed his eyes shut and buried the heels of his feet into the ground. Without his sandals on, he could feel everything touching the ground in his vicinity at that moment. The number of bodies being dragged, the number that'd already fallen. He couldn't sense his mother's body.

He felt something deep within his chest crack. Suddenly, the ground shook and something erupted out from behind him and cast shade over his back. After a moment, Eijun opened his eyes to see a wall of rock circling around them, separating them from the attacking men. He blinked. Had he just done that?

"You did," said his grandfather, and Eijun realized he must have spoken aloud.

"How?" His voice came out, cracked and worn. He'd barely been able to bend a rock or two before.

 ** _Bang!_** Angry voices were shouting around them. He could hear something slamming against the barrier. Pebbles and dust began to roll down.

"When I tell you to, I want you to push out at these rocks and send them flying," said his grandfather in a low voice. "That should throw them off. Then I want you to run."

"But – but I don't know how. And what about you?"

 ** _Bang!_**

"Listen to the earth and you'll know how," his grandfather said gruffly. In one swift motion, he took something off of his arm and pushed it into Eijun's hands. "Look for your father. If you can't find him, head north. In that case, just follow the stars like I taught you, Ei – "

 ** _BANG!_**

It was too late. Water burst through the rock, and all at once, the walls around them crumbled. Before Eijun could react, his grandfather shoved him out of the way. Where he had landed, he trembled, feeling like a leaf in the wind.

When the dust cleared, he found his grandfather's body crushed under a boulder. There was a red pool seeping out from below his head. What Eijun could see of his eyes and mouth were open.

And Eijun knew he was gone. Just like Wakana, Wakana's grandfather. Nobu's uncle. Old lady Mao. And countless others... They were all gone.

"Get the earthbender boy!" he heard Taiyou shout from a distance away, his smooth voice cracking.

Slowly, Eijun stood up. The chaos around him seemed to have faded into the background. All he could think about was how there was no longer anyone to tell him to do his chores anymore. There was no one to slap him on the head and call him an idiot. Even though just that morning, he had wished his grandfather wasn't there.

If only, he thought with a sick lurch, he hadn't ignored the earth's warning. If only he hadn't gone out to the shore...

The ground around him began to rumble. He could feel the crack that had split inside him growing larger and larger, deepening into a ravine. He didn't know where it was coming from, but he could feel a great river of unimaginable force and vigor, both strange and familiar, suddenly streaming through his body. His senses had been completely opened. If the earth had whispered to him before, it sang to him now. Despite the fact that he could count the number of times he had bended on one hand, Eijun suddenly knew just how to direct and caress the earth so that it obeyed his every will. Anchoring his feet in the ground, with the mere movements of his arms, he was sweeping the earth back and forth like the waves in the ocean.

He could feel the remaining invaders' bodies being swallowed up by the ground, the earth muffling their screams. He could hear the terror and pain in their voices, but it didn't reach him. He felt oddly cold and distant, as though watching from up high as he stepped on ants.

When the last scream faded into silence, Eijun lowered his arms. And then as though a dam had been put in place, he felt the river cease into a trickle of what it'd used to be. In its place, instead, was weariness. He staggered to the ground, and fell into pitch blackness.

* * *

When Eijun opened his eyes again, he woke to his home in ruins. Where there had been huts, there were only scraps of wood and rocks. There was no longer a village center to call the Pit. The fields and their carefully hoed rows were gone, replaced by upturned chunks of earth.

Most of the invaders had been buried alive, but Eijun found that one of their ships was missing, and he knew that the waterbender, Taiyou, had escaped. Eijun realized that he must have taken some of the villagers that'd been dragged off early on. He couldn't find his mother's body anywhere no matter where he searched, and wondered, his chest tightening with a feeling he couldn't recognize, whether she was one of them.

There was hardly anyone left in the village. The few left that Eijun found had been severely injured, and despite his best efforts, they soon stopped moving afterwards. Still, he wasn't the only one left. Not at first. He found Nobu, shaken but unharmed, under a hut. Furthermore, somehow through it all, the chickens had also managed to survive. For a while, Eijun and Nobu survived on raw eggs as they waited for their fathers to return from the hog hunt.

In the meantime, they busied themselves with burying the village folks, using rocks as markers for their graves. The first body Eijun tried to bury was his grandfather's. When he'd first regained consciousness, Eijun had found himself tightly gripping something in his hand: It was his grandfather's armband, the one that all the men in the village wore once they'd reached adulthood. It was too big for him, so he had to wrap it twice around his arm. Having done that, he attempted to try and bury the body by earthbending.

However, not only had the power that'd flooded him completely disappeared, the earth itself had stopped responding to him. He couldn't bend even a single speckle of dust. And so, he had to do it the manual way, with a shovel. It was hard, grueling work, for a pair of eight-year-olds, and it took them a long time at first to bury even a single body. Still, as time passed, they grew used to the work. The bodies had started to stink, and they threw up more than once, but they quickly got to the point where they were able to get through several bodies in a day.

They didn't talk much. Eijun knew Nobu had seen everything; he could tell from the way his friend had flinched when Eijun first raised his arms, and how he no longer looked him in the eye on the few occasions they did talk. He wasn't sure himself what'd happened. While he'd known he was an earthbender, he was quite certain that Wakana's grandfather and Nobu's uncle could never have done what he'd done. Nonetheless, putting that all aside, Eijun numbly clung to the thought that once their fathers returned, they would fix everything as they always had. Everything would somehow return to normal.

But days turned into weeks, and then a month had passed, and there was no sign of anybody coming for them. They were lucky the days were warm, for if it'd been in the winter, they would probably have died in the cold. As it was, they'd managed to build a temporary hut and had also finished burying all the bodies they could reach. Having grown sick of eggs, they spent their days chasing wild weasels away from the chickens.

Despite the possibility of there being supplies on the remaining beached ships, Eijun made a point of staying away from them. He'd wondered whether Taiyou and the other men who had managed to escape wouldn't come back for revenge, but the shores remained undisturbed.

"My grandpa…said to go north," said Eijun one evening. His voice croaked from lack of use.

"Dad's coming back," Nobu replied, his face unmoving.

Eijun hesitated. "I don't think…they're coming back."

"Your dad might not be. But mine is."

That night, Eijun heard Nobu get up. He didn't react, pretending to be asleep, and the next morning, Nobu was still gone. Eijun looked for his friend for two days and two nights. He tried to feel for his footsteps through the earth, but couldn't sense anything. He climbed up the tree he'd once hid in, and looked for him. But he was gone.

Up in the tree, away from the ground, the wind rattled around him. He couldn't see anything around but an unmoving forest and sea for miles in all directions, and he felt like he was the only person left in the world. And yet, he couldn't cry. He could only feel a terrible emptiness in his chest that he didn't think could ever be filled again.

On the dawn of the third morning, Eijun packed a knapsack with what he had managed to scavenge, and left the ruined village. He set out north.


	2. The Dark Forest

**The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man**

Chapter 2: "The Dark Forest"

* * *

There was a beaten-down dirt path in the direction Eijun was headed, which he knew was used by passing travelers.

The going was initially easier than he'd expected; he had gained a bit of lean muscle over the past month from his daily shoveling. But as he walked deeper into the forestland, going farther than he'd ever gone before in his eight years, the dirt path disappeared into untouched forest floor that grew increasingly difficult to navigate.

Leaves gave way to thick vines that hung down in his face, impeding his vision. With increasing frequency, he stumbled over hidden roots and scratched his face on thorns. In the distance and the not so far distance, he began to hear howls and yelps, and once, a deep rumbling that sounded like a large beast's growling stomach.

After some time, Eijun wasn't even sure whether he was heading north anymore. Several times, he panicked and thought about turning back—before realizing that there was nowhere to go back to. His grandfather, he tried reasoning with himself, had told him to head in that direction for a reason. And so, he took another step forward and moved on. Every now and then, when he heard something unsettling, Eijun tried to bend the earth again. But despite his efforts, he couldn't feel or hear anything from the earth, let alone bend it.

He wondered with a pang whether he'd somehow lost his earthbending ability.

* * *

By the time he stopped for the evening, Eijun was completely exhausted. He didn't know how much distance he had covered; while he couldn't have made much headway, the canopy had considerably thickened, blocking most of the sky. Even though it was late spring, it was cool, and the ground was soft and mossy. Eijun was tempted to fall asleep there on the spot—but just as he'd laid down his knapsack, he heard the sound of rustling branches and immediately snatched it back up. He looked around, his head turning this way and that. Nothing emerged. Nonetheless, not altogether eager to find the source of the sound, Eijun uneasily looked around one last time and then clambered up a knobby tree. As soon as he'd finished securing himself to the branch with a vine, he saw the last of the rays of sunlight disappear from the scattered cracks in the canopy.

The darkness was different from the night. The night had the moon and stars; the light of the fire from the Pit; the sounds of mooing bulls and clucking chickens. Darkness was different still from closing his eyes. Normally, when he closed his eyes, he knew that by opening them he would be able to see. But here, there was no difference between opening and closing his eyes; Eijun had to reach up with his fingers to make sure his eyes really were open.

And then, in the darkness, the voices appeared.

It started out as a whisper: It wasn't quite a human voice and they weren't words he understood, but first a single whisper, and then a murmuring of whispers broke out around him. Eijun looked around wildly, trying to place where it was coming from. He could only see blackness.

"Who are you?!"

Instantly, the sound broke off and stopped. It was silent, unnaturally so. Even the background sounds of the forest were missing, as though they'd been sucked away.

Eijun let out a rattling exhale. His heart thudded against his ribcage, sounding like a drum in the silence. He wondered if he'd scared it away somehow. Maybe it somehow knew that Eijun was an earthbender...even though he couldn't use his abilities at the moment. With another blind look around in the darkness, he lowered his head back down—when without any warning, waves crashing on the shore, the whispers exploded around him once more.

The source of the sound was clearer: It was coming from the earth below. And this time, he could understand what they were saying.

 _"Let us out..."_

 _"Kill them all!"_

 _"Let us out..."_

 _"Get the earthbender boy!"_

 _"I can't breathe!"_

 _"Let us out of here!"_

Increasing in volume, the voices of the strange men in the blue skins, the voices he had ignored before, howled around him. Their voices were accompanied by what sounded like fists banging against the dirt, and the screeching sounds of a pair of sickles sharpening each others' blades.

Trembling, Eijun covered his ears. But instead of blocking them out, he began to hear another set of voices ringing shrilly in his head—and to his horror, he recognized them individually.

 _"Eijun! Help!"_ cried Wakana.

 _"Where are you hiding, Eijun?"_ called Nobu's uncle.

 _"You left me,"_ Nobu hissed.

 _"Eijun!"_ his mother shrieked.

 _"We wouldn't have died if it wasn't for you,"_ his grandfather said in a terrible, accusing voice. _"It was all your fault."_

"I'm sorry," Eijun cried out. "I'm sorry, grandpa."

Even though he couldn't see anything, Eijun could feel his grandfather's gaze boring mercilessly into him.

 _"Prove it."_

Eijun flinched. He tried to back away, but there was something—the vine he'd tied around himself—keeping him in place.

With nowhere to go, as the voices continued to whisper in his head, he felt his strength draining from his body. His hands fell away from his ears—and the voices from the earth and in his head combined, tore away at him.

He didn't know how long he lay there on that tree. He curled up into a ball, but there was no escape: The voices of the dead clawed at his consciousness without rest. It was impossible to think. It felt as though he must have been there for years, but the darkness never lifted.

Just when Eijun had accepted that he was going to die there, he saw something.

In the distance, it looked like an indistinctive ball. It wasn't glowing, but the fact that he could see it at all in the pitch darkness set it apart. Groping to gather some of his scattered thoughts together, he observed its approach. As it grew closer, it began to take shape, and when it stepped just below him, he realized it was an animal. It was not one he'd ever seen before. It had the face of a tawny cat, but its body was much bigger than the one old lady Mao had kept. It had something that looked like white branches growing from its head.

He didn't know how, but it climbed the tree and licked his face. Its tongue was rough and warm. Next, he heard it chew through the vine, before nudging its head under his body and sliding him on top of its back. Eijun could feel its heart beating in rhythm below his and somehow, that helped ease him. The voices in the dark still raging around him, he closed his eyes and limply buried his face in its fur. The animal leaped back down to the ground in a single smooth movement, but the voices didn't grow louder. In fact, as they began to move swiftly across the earth, the voices faded, their shrieks growing weaker and farther away.

At last, it fell quiet. It was not the biding silence of before; Eijun could hear the wind whistling in his ears, and something else, rustling gently. The voices, however, were gone, and in their absence, Eijun realized that they could not possibly have truly belonged to the spirits of the dead. Something strange, something horrible in the forest had created the voices to whisper his doubts and fears into his ear. He shivered; he did not ever want to go back to that dark place.

Eventually, the animal came to a stop and bent down. He slid off, landing on the grass below, and opened his eyes.

It was still night. But to his unadjusted eyes, the ground at his feet appeared to be filled with what looked like twinkling lights. Eijun reached out with a wondering hand, and touched water. It was a river, Eijun realized. The lights were a reflection.

He looked up and saw that the forest was behind them. He was standing in a wide, open clearing. The suffocating canopy was gone. And high above, the night sky, filled with stars, stretched out over him. There must have been thousands of them, looking like particles of dust that'd been blown across the sky.

 _Follow the stars like I taught you._

Eijun turned to see the animal observing him in silence. Its eyes were intelligent. He reached out a tentative hand and placed it on its head. It nuzzled against his palm, and Eijun realized that somehow, he knew its name.

"Thank you, Mula."

It inclined its head, and then it galloped away back into the forest.

* * *

There were a set of constellations Eijun's grandfather had drilled into him when he was younger, but the most important was the parade of animals:

The cranefish's long beak curved into the goat dog's maw, which bit the tail of the ostrich horse, which jumped above the armadillo lion. The armadillo lion in turn bowed before the most important constellation of all: The badgermole, which's claw pointed north.

Looking up at the stars, Eijun quickly spotted the claw. It pointed toward a range of distant mountains, away from the forest, and ran parallel to a part of the river. It seemed that he really had been going in the wrong direction before.

Taking a long drink, he began to follow the river, but before long, his eyes grew heavy, and he fell asleep.

* * *

When Eijun woke again, his progress was much swifter than it had been in the forest. While he still didn't know exactly where he was headed, as his surroundings transformed from a grassy plain into sloping hills, he found a renewed sense of purpose in that he was at least going somewhere.

Ascertaining his direction at night with the stars, Eijun walked north for several days. On the evening of the fourth day, he reached the base of one of the mountains he had seen in the distance. Just a little ways up, he found an entrance to what appeared to be a shallow cave. It had started raining earlier that day, and relieved to have a roof over his head for the night, Eijun staggered inside.

He had lowered his knapsack and eaten half an egg before he realized that there was another person there.

The man was sitting very still in the shadows, near the back of the cave. He was dressed in tanned skins, and in his hurry, Eijun had taken him to be an oddly-shaped boulder.

As it was, Eijun saw something white and wondered what it was for an instant before realizing it was the white of an eye. He choked and leapt up to his feet.

"Who are you?!"

Without answering, the man rose up to his feet, and Eijun felt his eyes widen: The man was huge. He must've had at least half a head on the biggest man in Eijun's village, and his dark eyes held a gaze as hard as iron.

His body moving instinctively, Eijun fled the cave.

The rain had started pouring outside, and in a matter of seconds, he was soaked to the skin. Shivering, but mindless with panic, he splashed down to the base of the mountain before he realized he had forgotten his knapsack. Despite himself, Eijun looked back, his heart pounding in his ears. He was certain he would see the man right on his heels. To his surprise, there was no one there. He came to a wet stop.

Cold rain continued to fall in sheets around him. Something grumbled, and for a second, Eijun thought it was thunder, before realizing the sound had come from his hungry stomach. He swallowed. He didn't know anything about the terrain or fauna there and couldn't forage for food; without anything to eat, he would surely die. And yet, if he returned to the cave, the man would surely kill him.

With a pause, Eijun hesitantly dug his foot into the ground and tried to sense the other man's presence. But to his frustration, the earth remained resolutely unresponsive.

"Why won't you work anymore?!" he shouted, stamping his foot down.

"The earth won't obey anyone without the conviction to command it," said a gravelly voice that sent shivers running down his spine.

Eijun spun around to see the man looming before him. Eijun didn't think; he reacted. Letting out a yelp, he crouched down, and he felt the earth around him rumble and crack. When he looked back up, there was a barrier of rock jutting out around him, just as before.

Though the barrier blocked the rain, it was damp and dark inside. Eijun panted, catching his breath—when all of a sudden, a ham-like fist ripped through the rock as though it was nothing but paper. His mouth dropping open, Eijun fell back and watched in disbelief as the rocks cracked and fell apart. Rain started pouring inside.

His arms crossed, the man looked down at Eijun as one would an insect. "Did you think you were the only earthbender around?"

Eijun reached behind his back, his hands frantically searching for something.

"Did you think you could always be safe behind a rock barrier?"

His hands scrabbling across a pointed slab of stone, Eijun yelled and flung it. To his shock, the man effortlessly caught it with one hand. And then before his eyes, he crushed the rock, pulverizing it. Fine powder poured out from between his fingers.

 _That's it_ , Eijun thought. _I'm dead._

But the man didn't kill him. Instead, he dropped something on the ground—his knapsack.

"Get out of here, you fool. Go back home. Or you'll be dead within a few days." Digging the heels of his feet into the ground, he jumped up impossibly high, landing on the ledge outside the cave in one go. He disappeared inside.

The rain was cold and unrelenting as it continued to pour around Eijun.

After a while, when some of the sensation had returned to his legs, he crawled over to his bag. He held it close to his chest. He wasn't hungry anymore, but he ate another egg. The egg was cold as well.

Tilting his head back, he looked up at the sky: The sun had set and the stars stretched out above him, twinkling. The badgermole's claw, without a care for Eijun, continued to point toward the mountain.

His hands clenched into fists by his side. Then he climbed back up the mountain and kneeled down in front of the maw of the cave.

"Please teach me," he said.

"Go home, boy," came the voice in the dark.

"I don't have a home anymore."

The man didn't answer.

Eijun remained there, kneeling, as the rain continued to pound down on his back. The hours passed, and the rain came to a stop. It was pitch dark outside, and the air was freezing cold on his wet skin. His body shook violently, his head ached, and his teeth chattered. Eventually, his vision grew hazy, until finally, everything turned black.

* * *

The next time Eijun woke up, his whole body felt like it was on fire, and he was so dizzy, he promptly passed out again.

He drifted in and out of consciousness several times after that, his mind a broiling fog. At first, his head split with aching pain and he dreamed of terrible things. But as the pain eased, his dreams changed into one of aching familiarity.

 _Wearily, an old man slumps against a battered earthen coin. His voice echoes out of an empty chest._

 _"I'm sorry…I failed to bring peace. Even with...locked away, darkness still surrounds humanity. There wasn't enough time."_

* * *

When he finally opened his eyes again some time later, everything was clear once more. He was lying on a rough mat inside the cave. There was a crackling fire in the corner, and he could smell something warm brewing.

Eijun sat up, and saw the man looking down at him. Wordlessly, he handed him an earthen bowl filled with thick mushroom stew, and at the sight, Eijun felt a lump rise in the back of his throat.

He didn't have much strength left in his hands; they shook as he took a bite. The stew was hot, and he immediately burned his tongue on it. Taking a deep breath, he began to eat.

It'd been a long time, Eijun thought, since he had last eaten stew.


	3. The General

**The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man**

Chapter 3: "The General"

* * *

The man ignored Eijun for the most part.

He would go out to hunt and come back with double portions of wild game, but besides that, Eijun might as well have been invisible. Still, while the man never once told him to do anything, Eijun began to pick up what to do. He started out with daily chores, the kind he had always forgotten to do before, such as fetching water from the river in the morning and at night. He started collecting wood for the fire and as he began to recognize the various fauna, he gathered mushrooms, roots, and berries.

While the man didn't show any outward signs of acknowledgement at first, about two weeks after his arrival, Eijun came back from fetching water to find that the shallow cave had become deeper, allowing the two of them to stretch out more comfortably.

Once his chores were done, for the rest of the day, Eijun simply watched and tried to copy whatever the man was doing. The man followed a strict training regime every morning that involved countless numbers of push-ups, boulder smashing, and a lengthy run up the mountain. Afterwards, he sat on top of the mountaintop and meditated for hours, sometimes until the evening.

Eijun, on the other hand, collapsed on his second set of push-ups, couldn't smash a pebble, and had to take breathers in-between while climbing. Worst of all, however, was the meditation: The maximum Eijun could sit still was for a few minutes at best. It wasn't just that he was still only eight years old. When he wasn't keeping busy, his mind buzzed with thoughts of where his father was and whether his mother was still alive. His eyes remained resolutely dry, but he wondered where Nobu was and whether he had buried his grandfather's body deep enough that wild animals couldn't dig it up.

No, Eijun did not want to think.

Still, when it came to the physical training at least, he did as much as he could so that by the time night came around, he fell asleep right away. However, sometimes when the training was intense and he faltered, he wondered what he was doing there. It seemed pointless; it felt as though he was simply treading water, merely delaying the inevitable. One day, when the dark feeling was especially bad, he didn't leave the cave. But at the persistent thought that there was nothing else for Eijun to do but to survive, and that he needed earthbending to do so, he returned to his training the next day. (Whether the man noticed or not, he didn't say a word.)

In this manner, the weeks passed, and Eijun grew accustomed to living in the cave with the man. While he didn't know even his name, the sight of the man silently sitting on top of the mountain grew into a familiar, and even comforting one.

Oftentimes, Eijun wondered who the man was and what he was doing there in such a remote location. He looked around the same age as his father had been, and with his built frame and tanned skin, he could have been a farmer. The few times he displayed his earthbending, however, Eijun thought he was strong enough that he could have been one of the legendary generals the merchants had talked about when they visited his village; the ones who, in the tales, heroically led their forces to victory in defending their cities.

In his mind, he began to call the man, ' _General_.'

* * *

It was midsummer when the general began to teach him earthbending.

Eijun had taken to trying to earthbend during the times the general was meditating. He buried his foot into the dirt, and willed it to rise up to make a barrier as it'd done before. But no matter how much he concentrated, there was no response; the earth no longer whispered to him as it once had before. This went on for some time, and Eijun had been on the verge of calling it quits and consigning himself to a hermit's life of gathering roots when the general suddenly spoke one day.

"What you are lacking in is conviction."

Startled, Eijun stumbled and just barely managed to catch himself. He looked up to see the general in his usual sitting position, with his eyes closed. He hadn't moved a muscle.

"How can I get more of it?" asked Eijun, swallowing.

"You cannot," said the general. "It is something that must be grown."

"And how do I grow it?"

"By listening. By waiting."

He slowly nodded his head. "I see." He cleared his throat. "Can I ask a question?" The general didn't answer, and Eijun decided to take that as consent. "What does 'conviction' mean?"

* * *

Following that, the general began to teach Eijun, little by little. Eijun woke up the next morning to find a training menu better suited for his physique carved onto the wall above his mat. Several evenings later, the general handed him a rock the size of his head and told him to start sleeping with it. And then one day, it came.

"Earthbend," said the general.

Eijun blinked. "How?"

"Do what you always do."

After a pause, Eijun brought his foot back and dug his heel into the ground. Immediately, the general's foot lashed out and knocked him over.

"What was that for?" he yelped, scrambling back up.

"The most basic principle of earthbending is stability. You must root yourself into the earth to channel it."

The general planted his foot behind him, and then gestured for Eijun to kick him. With more than a little relish, Eijun did so—but his expression changed the moment he'd made contact: It felt as though he had kicked a tree. He yelped again, falling down to cradle his bruised leg. The general didn't respond. Instead, he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow as if to say, _Is that it?_

More than a little irritated, Eijun scowled up at the man. In response, the general punched the air and made a large boulder levitate, quickly wiping the scowl from his face.

They spent the next two hours correcting Eijun's stance before the general was satisfied. After that, Eijun was required to stand in that stance at all times except when he was eating or sleeping. If Eijun's stance faltered, he was forced to skip a meal. As might be expected, he went hungry quite often the first week. Nonetheless, it gradually became the most natural position to be in, and Eijun soon reached a point where he no longer needed to think about it.

Despite all that however, Eijun found to his frustration that he still couldn't earthbend. No matter how much he focused his will on the earth, it didn't respond.

"You need to listen," said the general repeatedly. "Listening leads to understanding. Conviction comes from understanding."

After about the one hundredth time of hearing the same thing, Eijun flopped down to the ground in frustration. "I'm _trying._ But what am I supposed to be listening for?"

"Yourself."

Eijun blinked; that had been the last thing he'd expected. "Myself…?"

The general regarded him balefully. "Why do you think I meditate every day?"

"Well… That's what wise people do in the mountains, isn't it?" Eijun mumbled. "I just don't understand what meditating has to do with earthbending."

For one, he was fairly certain that Wakana's grandfather, an earthbender who had always been cracking dirty jokes, had never meditated a day in his life.

The general folded his arms across his chest. "Earthbending is described as the most physical element, and in many ways, that's true. What people often don't realize however, is that the earth is the most alive of the four elements: All things grow from the earth, and all return to it in the end. It is a cycle of life and death. What do you think of when you meditate?"

"I don't know," Eijun said, fidgeting. "About nature. Maybe."

"What about matters concerning yourself?"

He swallowed. "I try not to think too much about myself."

"You must," said the general firmly. "You are a part of the earth, of the cycle. By removing yourself from the cycle, you cut off your connection with the earth. Only when you are listening to yourself, can you listen to the earth."

Sometimes, Eijun wished the general didn't speak so confusingly.

* * *

One late summer day, he learned that the general was blind.

Eijun suspected that the reason why it had taken him so long to realize, was due the fact that the general did not seem in any way inconvenienced by his blindness. He always knew where everything was. He was nothing like the old people in his village whose eyes had grown clouded with age and could barely go anywhere beyond their backyards. He also turned his face towards Eijun whenever he addressed him. Eijun only realized the fact after he pointed out a red bird he'd never seen before flying in the sky, and asked what it was.

"Well, even if I knew, I couldn't say."

There was a small smile playing at the general's lips, which in of itself took Eijun by surprise; he did not think he had ever seen him smile before—or show any emotion, really.

All of a sudden, Eijun noticed that while the general was facing the sky, his body was not turned at quite the right angle to see the bird. Curiously, he chanced a look at the general's eyes. They were dark, and as scary as always. For the first time, however, he saw that there was something unfocused about his gaze. And then it dawned upon him: That perhaps, in some ways, Eijun really was invisible to the general.

"Are you… blind?"

"It seems I am not alone in that matter," the general replied drily.

* * *

While Eijun knew in the back of the mind that the whole world was still out there, he had gradually gotten used to his own world consisting of just the general and himself. The leaves of the trees on the mountain had started to change color when that construction was abruptly shattered by the coming of a visitor.

Eijun had just started the fire for the evening, when he sensed someone approaching the cave. While he still couldn't earthbend or sense things through the earth the way the general could, his senses had grown more acute, and he was able to pick up the sound of an approaching pair of unfamiliar footsteps. As silently as he could, Eijun picked up one of the burning logs, and waited near the cave's entrance. Just as the stranger entered, he struck.

" _ **Ahhh!**_ " His eyes widening at the sight of Eijun, the stranger dodged, barely managing to avoid the log. He was dressed in long green robes, which could only have hampered him, and his hands flailed out. Ducking under them with ease, Eijun swung again. Before he could hit him, however, a block of earth suddenly rose up and struck Eijun in the chest, knocking him down to the ground.

"You fool," came the general's thundering voice.

As Eijun tried to catch his breath, he saw the stranger sag in relief.

 **" _General Tesshin!_ "**

* * *

The stranger, it turned out, was not a stranger after all. His name was Ōta, and he was an acquaintance of the general—who, as it also turned out, had actually been a general of an Earth Kingdom army. From what Eijun could gather, Ōta had been a subordinate of sorts to the general, and came by his retreat every now and then to bring news of current events.

While the general—or rather, Tesshin, as he'd now learned—sat down to talk with Ōta, Eijun got busy preparing that evening's meal. Tesshin must have somehow known there would be another body joining them, for he'd caught enough to feed three mouths. Their conversation started out with the usual small talk, and Eijun was about to lose interest when the topic changed to him.

"Is the boy your disciple?"

"He's a pest who won't go away," Tesshin answered.

"I see... He had a solid form. An earthbender, I take it?"

"I suppose."

"You suppose? What does that mean?"

Eijun could feel Ōta's curious gaze turn to his back.

"More importantly," said Tesshin. "What news are you bringing me?"

"Ah yes, excuse me," said Ōta hastily. He then lowered his voice, and Eijun had to concentrate to listen. "Tension is building between the nations."

"Is it the Fire Nation again?" Tesshin didn't sound surprised; then again, he never did.

"Actually, they've been rather quiet lately, which in and of itself is a bit alarming... no, this time, it's the Water Tribes."

"The Water Tribes? When have they ever expressed interest in anything outside of themselves?"

Ōta lowered his voice even more, and with the stew starting to bubble and boil, Eijun could no longer hear them.

Once they had all eaten their fill of armadillo hare stew, Ōta stood up to leave, brushing the dust off his robes.

"I'll be going then. It was good seeing you, general. You should come out of your cave every now and then and visit Ba Sing Se."

"I have no position there anymore," came the answer.

"The prince would be more than happy to make you one, you know?" Ōta motioned around at the dinghy cave. "Or at least, move somewhere else. I've been hearing word about some slavers ransacking villages in this area. A nasty bunch, they are."

"'Slavers'?" Eijun repeated, the word unfamiliar to his tongue.

Ōta seemed bemused to hear him talk; it was the first thing Eijun had said all evening.

"It means they deal in human trafficking. Technically, slavers are merchants I suppose, but in reality, the whole lot of them are pirates. Their usual fall-back method when their stock drops is by kidnapping free folks, and then auctioning them off at slave markets. No... it's best not to tangle with them."

* * *

That night, Eijun couldn't sleep. Even with his eyes squeezed shut, Ōta's parting words echoed through his head: _I've been hearing word about some slavers ransacking villages in this area._

An image of an unconscious woman's body being dragged away by men in strange blue skins flashed through his head, and his eyes flashed open. Eijun got up, and placed a hand over his chest. He could feel his heart beating rapidly below his palm.

Tesshin was sleeping, judging from the steady rise and fall of his chest. Making up his mind, Eijun crept out of the cave and climbed up the mountain's side. He noticed that it was a lot easier now than it'd been on his pitiful first attempt; he could reach the top without a hitch in his breath. Once at the peak, he sat down in his usual meditative pose.

The nights had been getting colder and the winds louder. The leaves of the surrounding trees rustled. While they had been golden in the day, they appeared black now in the night darkness. Eijun let out a slow breath that was immediately snatched away by the wind.

Could it be? Could it have been _slavers_ who had attacked his village and taken away his mother? He still didn't quite understand what slavers were; he hadn't known half of the words in Ōta's brief explanation. What he did know, however, was that there was a chance she was somewhere out there.

That there was a chance she was still alive.

It was such a buoyant thought, Eijun felt compelled to get up to his feet. He closed his eyes; he could feel the wind flowing around him, brushing against his skin. He could feel the gritty dirt under his bare feet.

This whole time, Eijun had been trying to learn how to earthbend for the sole reason of surviving. There'd been nothing else. Now, however, he could feel the beginnings of purpose filling that emptiness, because even though his friends and his grandfather were gone, and even though his father had never come back, his mother... she was still somewhere out there in the world. And while he couldn't save her the way he was now, if he got stronger, he had a chance.

If he got stronger, Eijun thought, he could save her.

Before, when there had been only empty darkness within himself, he hadn't wanted to think. He hadn't wanted to remember. Now however, he thought back to his memories of that fateful day. He thought of his grandfather thrusting the armband in his hands. He thought of Wakana's still body, of Nobu's fading footsteps. He thought of how solitary he'd felt all alone on top of the tree, and of his mother's body being dragged away. He thought of the water bender man; the man with the smooth voice; the slaver.

Eijun thought of how the man had caused all that to happen, and for the first time in his life, he felt something black and bottomless begin to boil inside of his chest.

As he thought and thought, he heard a voice. It was the earth's voice; while he'd heard it plenty of times before, it was only now that he listened. And as he did so, it whispered of what it hid, lurking below the surface.

Burrowing his feet in the dirt, Eijun lowered himself into a tight stance. He raised his leg—and the earth in front of him cracked in half. Rising out of the resulting crevice, a large boulder levitated before him. Arching his body back, he kicked up, and the boulder exploded into thousands of pieces, filling the air with fine particles of dust.

* * *

When Eijun returned to the cave that night, Tesshin was still sleeping as how he'd left him. But when Eijun showed him the next morning what he could do, the man didn't seem too surprised.


	4. The Mountain City

**The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man**

Chapter 4: "The Mountain City"

* * *

Tesshin was a man who believed in action over words, and this translated into the way he taught Eijun. And by that, it meant that one day soon after Eijun's bending returned to him, Tesshin began randomly bending massive boulders in his direction.

The first time it happened, Eijun let out a yelp and dodged. The rock slammed into the ground instead, sending out shockwaves that split a nearby bush in half.

"The next time you dodge, that's fifty push-ups," said Tesshin.

When it happened again the subsequent day, Eijun didn't dodge. Instead, he thrust out his fist to try and break it. What he didn't foresee was a large piece breaking off and striking him on the face, knocking him out for the count for the rest of the day.

It took Eijun several more days before he began being able to instinctively bend the whole rock away from himself, and by then, his entire body was purplish and sore. Nonetheless, after he'd successfully countered Tesshin's attacks for the fifth time in a row, he had just begun to feel a bit pleased with himself—when Tesshin suddenly made a splitting motion in the air and the earth below his feet opened up and swallowed him.

When the winter months rolled around, Eijun had to learn not just how to deal with Tesshin's grueling training, but also how to weather the natural elements. The inside of the cave remained toasty warm; they had blocked the entrance, making a small hole over the dancing fire for the fumes. The outside on the other hand, was a completely different story, with the mountaintop reaching temperatures well below freezing.

As Eijun soon found out however, that did not stop Tesshin from continuing their training.

Following the first night of snowfall, when Eijun stepped out of the cave in the morning and saw how the world had been covered in white, he let out a squawk of delight and threw himself forward into the snow pile. Several seconds later, he came up shivering, the delight on his face giving way to shock at how cold it was.

"G-General..."

Tesshin was already moving, carving a large path through the snow.

"It's going to be this way for the next three months. Unless you're planning on hibernating?" His gaze could have melted the rest of the snow around them.

That was that. Eijun knew there was nothing he could say that would change anything; watching his breath freezing in midair, he completed their usual training for that day.

But the next morning, Eijun woke up with a raging fever the likes of which he hadn't experienced since he'd waited in the rain outside the cave. It was all he could do to lift his heavy, splitting head up, and the only thing he registered was the disconcerted look on the general's face before everything turned black again.

When the fever finally passed a few days later, Tesshin didn't say anything, but Eijun found a crude cloak made of pelt waiting beside his sleeping spot.

* * *

And so, the months flew by. Slowly, the cold winds lost their edge, and then gave way to rain. The trees that had been black and bare were green and flowering once more by the time Eijun realized that once again, spring had arrived on the mountain.

By that point, bending had become something of a second nature to Eijun, to the point that he wondered how he had ever lived without it. He breathed and lived in it; it was a reflex as natural as the beating of his heart. Sometimes, it was hard to believe that it hadn't even been a year since Eijun had met Tesshin. The time he had spent before he met Tesshin might have all felt like a dream if it weren't for the possibility of his mother's survival lighting up his corner of the cave.

It still hurt to think of his grandfather and his friends. But their faces were beginning to blur.

* * *

It was a warm spring afternoon when Ōta returned to the cave bearing news. The sun was shining into the cave entrance and birds were twittering in the vicinity; Eijun recognized the rhythm of his footsteps this time, and with a stamp of his foot and a beckon of his hand, he bended a rough stairway up to the cave entrance.

Soon, wearing a grateful expression—his robes and the man himself looked rather on the heavy side—Ōta was hovering inside the cave's entrance. The look transformed into one of surprise when he spotted Eijun.

"You're still here!" he exclaimed. "So you really are General Tesshin's disciple, then? What'd you have to do?"

Eijun frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

A shadow of doubt swam across Ōta's wide-spaced features. "Well you see, General Tesshin once said that he was never going to take on another disciple again after Prince Te - "

"Ōta," rumbled the general, his broad frame filling the entrance. "I've been expecting you. You're late."

Looking slightly abashed, Ōta inclined his head. "My apologies, general." Once Tesshin walked inside and sat down, he respectfully kneeled down by his side. "While it's no excuse, there was some trouble on the way here with bandits on the road… Thankfully, my bodyguard was able to handle them."

"Your bodyguard?"

"These are dangerous times, general. It's been a nightmare up in Ba - oh, thank you." Ōta broke off, accepting the cup of tea Eijun had poured for him. He took a surprisingly dainty sip, and his eyes widened. "Exquisite. Just delightful. And I thought I'd already drank the best this side of the nation had to offer… May I ask what tea this is? Its aroma reminds me of jasmine, but it's creamier and not quite so dry… and what a flavor! I've never had anything quite like this before."

Eijun scratched his chin. "There were flowers growing in the tree shade."

His eyes gleaming, Ōta leaned forward (Eijun leaned back). "I must ask you to share with me where exactly you found them."

"Before you go off on your tea hunt," the general interjected in a dry tone. "I'm interested in hearing the rest of what you had to say."

"Ah, yes," Ōta coughed. "Where was I? …well, my bodyguard is waiting down at the base of the mountain. I had to hire him because it's simply not safe enough anymore to travel between Ba Sing Se and Omashu without one. The bandits have been getting bolder lately around here. They used to stay away from the main roads, but with those pirate slavers wreaking havoc here and there, the infrastructure has started falling apart. That's actually why I'm headed to Omashu next, in fact, general. I've got a message from the prince for King Kumakiri."

"From the prince, then? Not the king," said Tesshin, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

Ōta looked uncomfortable. "That's right, general."

While Eijun didn't understand what they were talking about, there was one thing Ōta had said that'd caught in his mind. He'd heard it once before, the last time Ōta had come: _Slavers_. He'd had thoughts about it the first time around, but he'd hardly had time to ponder on it since then.

Things were different now, however. _He_ was different.

Or at least, so he hoped.

Once it seemed that Tesshin and Ōta's conversation had reached a lull, and they were sipping at their tea, Eijun turned towards the portly man.

"I have a question," he began, "about where the slaves go."

"What do you mean by that?" Ōta sounded bemused.

"The last time you were here, you said that slavers sell off people at markets. Well… who buys them?"

Ōta let out a chortle. "Who buys people? Other people of course! That is, those who have need of cheap labor, or require other, _ahem,_ services not normally permitted within the law." At the look on Eijun's face, he added, "You must understand, a slave has no basic rights. A buyer of slaves bids in the auction with that fundamental notion in mind."

All this going over Eijun's head, he asked, "Then, what happens to a slave after they're sold?"

"After…?" Ōta raised his eyebrows. "Don't tell me… is there someone you're trying to find?"

Eijun flushed; his eyes flashed to Tesshin, but the general didn't seem to react. Reaching for his armband, he squeezed it for reassurance. He wasn't sure how to proceed. He'd never had to tiptoe around a subject before. He'd always just spoken his mind, and if it earned him a slap on the head, so be it.

"I'm looking for someone," he said at last. He didn't specify who; even if Ōta was a friend of the general, he didn't trust him enough for that. "They were taken by slavers from the other side of the forest."

Though he looked curious, Ōta thankfully didn't press the issue. "Well, if it's on the west coast, the vast majority of the slave trade goes through Omashu at one point or another. They do keep loose records of the trades there, so if you were searching for someone, that's personally where I'd head first."

 _Omashu_...

He'd heard of the great city before. Merchants passing through Eijun's village had always either been on their way there or back, and were full of stories. He could still clearly remember them: They'd talked about all the different foods and wares, the unique network of rock tunnels that'd been built underground to carry away their waste, the gigantic gates that thousands of visitors passed through every day.

They'd never mentioned a market that sold people, however.

* * *

It was early enough in the spring that the evenings were still cold, and it was a particularly chilly one that day. Eijun stoked the fire, looking into the bright flames. He thought he could see dark figures dancing in them.

After some time, there was a slight vibration through the earth; he sensed Tesshin's returning to the cave from taking Ōta back down to the base. Without a word, Tesshin sat down in front of the fire, and closing his eyes, he crossed his arms meditatively. Between the intervals of the crackling fire, Eijun could feel the tension in the air. Stealing a glance at the general's impassive face, he took a deep breath. It'd been churning in his stomach the whole time. If he kept it back any longer, he thought he would burst.

"General," he began. "I... want to go to Omashu. I want to search for my mother." He winced internally at himself; the hesitation was glaringly evident even to him.

In the short time he'd had to ruminate, he'd thought of a variety of answers Tesshin might return, ranging from indifference to irritation. However, what Tesshin actually said wasn't any of them.

"Do you consider yourself ready?"

While the general didn't specify what he meant, Eijun immediately understood. "Yes." He squared back his shoulders. Though he wasn't anywhere near Tesshin's level of course, he thought he'd be able to handle himself in most situations. The earth was with him after all; the general's teachings were with him.

Tesshin's eyes flashed open. "You are not ready." His tone of steel was absolute.

Eijun's heart jumped to his throat. "I - I can handle myself now. I've done everything as you taught me."

"You fool. Do you think we are the only two earthbenders around? Do you think there is a half-adequate earthbender around who can't do what you can?"

With a sting of déjà vu, Eijun realized it was the same thing Tesshin had said when they first met. He felt a prickle of something hot, like liquid fire, seeping up to his face. "You don't understand!" he burst out, jumping up to his feet. "My mother could be out there dying right now. What's the point of learning how to earthbend if I can't help her when she needs it?"

"What does that have to do with me?" Tesshin thundered. Even sitting on the ground, he somehow towered over him, and Eijun felt his eyes widen. "If you leave, do not expect to find a place here again."

They fell silent. In the lonely cave, the fire crackled on.

* * *

That night, looking up at the rocky ceiling, Eijun made up his mind.

He had listened to and followed Tesshin this whole time, with hardly a complaint. Surely, just this one time, it would be fine to do what he felt was right? Tesshin didn't understand, after all, how important this was to Eijun—that the main force driving him right now to try anything at all, was the hope of finding his mother.

He could sense it. The earth was whispering to him: If he didn't start searching for her soon, it would be too late.

Getting up quietly, he gathered his few meager possessions: His knapsack, a leather skin for water, his armband. He didn't need any eggs this time; by now, he had learned how to feed himself in the wild.

It was dark outside the cave. The birds had fallen silent. Only those things that rustled and slithered in secret through the forest were starting to wake. Before Eijun left, he paused by the cave entrance. He looked inside at the space that he had lived in for the past year. He wondered whether Tesshin would make it smaller after he was gone.

"Thank you," he said.

There was no answer, and no change in Tesshin's breathing. Eijun knew by now however; he could tell he was awake, listening to Eijun's retreating footsteps. Tesshin, who had taken in and taught a strange boy who'd appeared out of nowhere. His general, his teacher. And in some ways, his second father.

It seemed, however, that Eijun had been the only one to think of him in that way.

 _If you leave, do not expect to find a place here again._

The words still stung. He could still hear them ringing in his ears. They may have once devastated him, scared him into submission. But Eijun was different now.

"Goodbye." He turned his back on the place he had come to consider his home.

And then he left. He didn't look back.

Nor did he hear Tesshin say into the empty cave air, "Fool of a boy."

* * *

Whereas Eijun had once had to solely rely on the constellations to find his way, it was much simpler for him now: All he had to do was follow Ōta's trail. The prints led down the mountain and then turned into two pairs of ostrich horse prints, presumably belonging to his and his bodyguard's mounts. Eijun followed them as quickly as he could, not wanting them washed away by the next rainfall. He bended the earth below his feet to propel him along the way, and gradually, to Eijun's wonder, the landscape began to shift from woodland forest to rocky terrain and steppes.

Despite having lived out in the wild for the past year, he had never ventured past the base of the mountain in that time. And before that, he had only ever been in the vicinity of his village.

There had been the forest he'd had to get through to reach this mountain, but thinking back on it now, Eijun couldn't remember much of the details. For one, try as he might, he couldn't recall how he had gotten out of there. One second, terrible voices had been howling in his mind, and the next, he was looking into a river full of stars. Something had brought him out of there... what it'd been, he couldn't say.

It took two and a half days of hard traveling to reach Omashu. It had just started pitter pattering with rain, when Eijun suddenly realized that there was something off about a quartet of mountains in the distance. Growing closer, his eyes widened: The ridges were not ridges after all. They were lines upon lines of thousands of rooftops.

* * *

"State your name, point of origin, and purpose of visit," grunted a bored guard outside the gates.

It may have taken Eijun off-guard had he not just listened to him ask the exact same question of the ten people who'd been standing on line before him.

"Eijun, Akagi Village. I'm here to join my father in the farmer's market." Given what the others had said, it sounded like the safest answer. Lo and behold, the guard jerked his head and Eijun was waved in.

"State your name, point of origin, and purpose of visit," droned the guard behind him.

Stepping inside the bustling city of Omashu for the first time in his life, Eijun felt his breath catch. He had never seen anything quite like this before: Buildings made of stone that reached high into the air, and this many of them all in the same area, pressing against each other like a crowd. It wasn't just aboveground either; he could sense tunnels of solid rock running deep underground.

There were more people than he'd ever seen in his life streaming around the gate entrance. Most of them were dressed in familiar earthy greens and browns, but there were those dressed in bright tones of red and black, and even a few in what looked like orange robes. It was all very strange to Eijun.

Just then, one of them bumped hard into him, and without a single word of apology, swept off in a hurry. Rubbing his shoulder, but nonplussed, Eijun returned his attention to the city, and as though in a trance, began to walk around. He passed something that looked like a collection of colorful tents with wares presented outside and merchants calling out their prices. This, it dawned upon him, was a true market.

Suddenly, he froze. At one of the busier stalls, there was a dark-skinned man yelling out, "Freshest fish this side of the mountain!" But what had caught Eijun's attention was his clothes: He was wearing light blue robes with a white animal pelt draped on his head—the traditional clothes of the Water Tribes.

Before Eijun had realized it, he was walking toward the man. His whole body was shaking. His vision was turning oddly fragmented and focused.

"How much is this?" he asked, pointing randomly. Miraculously, his voice came out calm.

"That'll be two copper pieces, kid," said the man cheerily, his voice coming through like jagged pieces of glass.

Eijun didn't have any money; his pants didn't even have any pockets. Wordlessly, he looked away and the man switched his attention to another customer.

He was being stupid. There were tons of people from the Water Tribes. From what he'd heard, they were even split between the Northern and Southern tribes. And most of them were normal people; it'd just so happened that the slavers who'd attacked his village had been Water Tribe...

Dazed, Eijun bumped into someone who'd been walking by. He grimaced, waiting for the inevitable admonishing.

Instead, a male voice asked, "Are you okay?"

Eijun looked up to see a man in a well-worn traveler's cloak. "I'm...fine. Sorry."

"Alright," said the man, not in an unkind voice. "Watch your step." He turned away. There was another boy with him who stared curiously at Eijun through a pair of glasses, before following the man.

"That kid's not wearing any shoes," he heard the boy say.

Slipping away from the crowd and into a secluded crack between two stalls, Eijun crouched down. Clenching and unclenching his hands, he closed his eyes and began to take deep breaths, moving the air in and out of his lungs. His breathing adjusted to the subtly moving currents of breeze filtering through the alleyway, and then faded, leaving only the sounds of dozens conversations fading in and out around him.

He hadn't meant to listen, and most of them were meaningless. But one caught his attention:

"We got a shipment in last night… Most of them were brats, even though I specifically asked for teenagers…"

"Damn water savages can't do a single thing right…"

Eijun's eyes flew open, returning him to the lone space he was currently in. His heart had stopped pounding, and his body was perfectly still. Knowing with sudden clarity what he had to do, he rose to his feet.

The duo who had been talking were two alleys away. He could sense their footsteps rapidly getting farther and farther away. Jumping up the walls, Eijun landed on the tiled roof of the building. He looked around—and even in the midst of the crowd, spotted them immediately: They were dressed in rich green and gold clothes, with wide-brim hats covering most of their faces. Taking care to make as little sound as possible, Eijun followed them as they weaved through alley after alley. Wherever they were headed, it was a long distance away from the city's main gates; the number of people walking around had substantially decreased.

At long last, they stopped and entered what appeared to be a small storage house. After a few minutes of inactivity, Eijun dropped down to the ground. As soon as he did so, he realized there was a level underground, below the house—holding several dozens of bodies. Suddenly, he froze. He hadn't realized it while he was on the roof, but there was another pair of feet swiftly approaching him from behi –

With a quick, explosive blow to the back of his head, Eijun felt his eyes roll back. He could see blinding, dizzying stars fill his sight. He would have fallen over, had his feet not been planted solidly on the ground. As it was, he unsteadily teetered on the balls of his feet, trying to back away and bring up a defensive wall. However, his head was spinning uncontrollably, and to his frustration, he couldn't seem to concentrate enough to do so. There was someone extremely large, like a tree, walking over to him, and for a second he thought it was Tesshin—but no, the man was too thin for that.

Bile rising up his throat, just as Eijun had opened his mouth to shout for help, the man raised his trunk-like leg and kicked, crushing him in the stomach. Pain shooting through every system of his body, Eijun fought frantically against the seeping darkness. And yet it was futile, as everything turned black.

* * *

When Eijun came to, it was to the sounds of hushed voices in the dark that abruptly stopped at his stirring.

Where was he…?

In a rush of mental images, reality crashed around him as he recalled the tall man knocking him out. Eijun shot upright, ignoring the sounds of other feet backing away from him. However, at the sudden movement, his head spun and his stomach churned. Doubling over, he retched.

Once he had emptied everything in his stomach, Eijun felt his head clear. Straightening up, he stretched out his senses, taking stock of his surroundings: The earth below his feet was solid rock. The air was stale and stifling; he was hundreds of feet below ground, in what appeared to be a small underground storage space connected to the surface by a stairway. Nor, as he'd already managed to gather, was he alone. There must've been at least twenty other bodies with him.

Eijun felt his stomach churn again; he'd barely lasted five minutes in Omashu before being tossed around like a rag doll and then thrown into this underground prison. So much, he thought angrily, for being different now.

"You okay, kid?" said a boy cautiously.

Eijun couldn't see his face, but judging from the voice, he couldn't have been much older than him. "Where are we?"

"You've been taken by the Giant's gang."

"The Giant?" Eijun shifted his position and began to scan the area. "What's that?"

"You mean who. Don't tell me you don't know Maki the Giant?" His tone was incredulous.

"I just came to Omashu for the first time." Eijun exhaled. Despite his less than ideal circumstance, judging from the structure of the prison, it seemed the person who'd knocked him out hadn't taken him to be an earthbender.

"Oh… Tough luck. Really. But it's too late now. You're all gonna be sold over the next week or so."

Eijun stopped short. "Sold? Why don't you run away?"

The boy, and several others around them, tittered. "You can't escape this place. The Giant'll go after you if you do, and kill you."

"Yeah?" Eijun muttered. "Watch me." Raising his hands, he split the air in front of him, and with a screeching sound, the ceiling wrenched back. Sunlight poured into the dark space, illuminating the faces of what he now realized were all children. At the sudden brightness, they cried out in surprise and covered their faces.

"What're you doing?!" The boy who'd been talking to him looked his age, with short-cropped hair and outraged eyes that were now watering from the light.

Eijun didn't bother answering. Stomping down on the ground, he pushed up in the air, and the earth rose up below them with a rumble, lifting them up out of the hole. They emerged into an open square populated by merchants and their customers, who gaped at them as Eijun clambered out.

He turned back and to his incredulity, saw the other children who, for some reason, weren't moving. "Run! Get away from here!"

Too late, he realized that their eyes were fixed on something behind him.

"Well, well," said a voice, calm and low. "An earthbender. You'll sell for a higher price than I expected."

Eijun spun around to see a large man who could only be the who had attacked him—the one the boy had called the Giant. The name was appropriate in a way, as the man's only remarkable attribute appeared to be his height; his face was long and bland in feature.

The Giant turned to the boy, who flinched under his calculating gaze. "Shinji… I told you to keep the other children under guard, didn't I? Then how can you explain this?"

"I was trying, sir," said the boy named Shinji, his face a deathly white. "But he just...bended us out of there."

"I'll deal with you later," said the Giant dismissively. He took a slow, measured step toward him; Eijun tensed, and the Giant's lips reared back in an indulgent smile. "It'll be easier on you to just quietly come along." And then, with another heavy step forward, he clapped his hands together. In response, two slabs of rock around Eijun erupted out to capture him in a tomb.

But this time, Eijun was ready. Leaping out of the way, he swiftly countered with a punch that sent broken pieces of rock hurtling towards the Giant. The Giant swung his foot back to swat them away—when Eijun thrust his hands out and jerked up in a pulling motion. Spears of rock rose out from the ground behind the Giant, knocking him off balance. Looking more surprised than hurt, he staggered, and in that moment, Eijun seized the chance to bend a slab of rock directly below the man, slamming up into his chin.

The Giant was unconscious on the spot before he'd even hit the ground, collapsing in a heap of long limbs and muscle.

The silence that filled the open area was stifling. Refusing to lower his guard, Eijun's gaze darted from face to face, daring anyone else to challenge him. But collectively, the bystanders averted their gaze and began to drop away.

The children who had been rooted to the spot were still blinking owlishly away from the sunlight. Some of them looked as though they hadn't seen the light of day in weeks, and belatedly, Eijun realized that the sudden light must have disabled them. The boy called Shinji stood still in their midst, gawking at the unmoving figure of the Giant.

Eijun stalked over and positioned himself in front of the boy. "You worked for the Giant, didn't you?"

His face still a pale white, Shinji jerked back. "He threatened me. He was going to kill me, you have to understand - "

"I'm looking for someone," Eijun interrupted. "A woman. She was about this tall, with brown hair. Have you seen anyone like that?"

Shinji scoffed. "There's got to be thousands of..." Seemingly thinking better of it at the look on Eijun's face, he asked, "I-I mean, well, how old was she?"

Eijun had to stop and think as with a pang, he realized that he didn't know his mother's exact age. "Maybe 30 or so."

But Shinji was already shaking his head. "The Giant only ever dealt with kids. I'm sorry." He looked past Eijun, and swallowed deeply. "Is...is he dead?"

Through his disappointment, Eijun could feel the slight tremor of the earth around the Giant. "No, he's still breathing."

The boy paused for a second, and then turning on the heel of his feet, he fled. Perhaps taking it as a signal, the other children too began to disappear into the crowd. Stony faced, Eijun watched their retreating backs.

"This person you're searching for...was it a relative of yours?" a mild voice asked.

Eijun spun to see an overweight elderly man dressed in somber earth tones, the lines of his face creased in his age. His eyes looked almost closed, as though his lids were weighed down in contemplation.

"Why do you want to know?" Eijun asked suspiciously.

The older man rubbed his chin. "I remember seeing a woman with eyes your color a few months back. You don't see them often in Earth Kingdom folks, so I considered bidding on her myself, but..." He turned away and began wandering away, muttering something intangible.

"Who bought her then?" Eijun demanded.

The man didn't respond; instead, he raised a hammy hand and motioned to follow him. Eijun hesitated—and then joined him down a narrow path that led away from the area.

His reward was a frank statement: "She was won by a merchant who I know largely operates in Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se?" Eijun repeated, the pit of his stomach dropping. He didn't know much about the city, but he'd heard of it many times before in stories. It was incredibly far away, he knew; the journey could take months on foot.

The man smiled. It was congenial, and yet somehow it sent a chill running down Eijun's back.

"As it so happens, I'll soon be leaving for Ba Sing Se myself. I wouldn't mind taking you along...for a price, that is."

Eijun paused. "What is it?"

"I've been looking for a bodyguard of sorts, for my merchandise."

"You want _me_ to be your bodyguard?"

"It's hard to come by a decent earthbender these days. And while you may be a child, I saw the way you handled the Giant. You'd be a welcome addition to my caravan." One of the man's eyes opened, and Eijun caught a glimpse of a cold, dark pupil. "Besides, without me, I hardly think you'll be able to find any other passage to Ba Sing Se. I'm your best shot at getting there." Saying that, without looking back, the man began to shuffle away.

Thinking of the children who'd been trapped below ground, this time, Eijun didn't hesitate. Picking up his feet, he followed the man down the dark road.


	5. The Bandits

**The Fire Lord's Left-hand Man**

Chapter 5: "The Bandits"

* * *

It was a pity, really, that Yū had already sold off their remaining mongoose dragon the previous week—and a near miracle that the money from it had already disappeared somewhere.

"I'm telling you, Prince Zaizen of Ba Sing Se is my friend," he tried to assuage the livid tavern owner. "I'm sure he'd be more than happy to cover a day or two's worth of lodgings."

"That's a _week_ ," growled the portly man, pushing his red face into Yū's. "And assuming even for a second that the absurd things you're claiming are true, this is _Omashu_. What should I care about some far-off prince?"

His brow furrowing in thought, Yū considered it. "You have a point there."

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound rang out in the alleyway behind them, followed by a high-pitched scream. As the two reflexively turned towards the source of the noise, Yū felt a hand grab his arm and yank him backwards. Looking back, he caught a glimpse of a small, dark-haired figure whose usually composed features were currently tight with apprehension—his younger brother.

"Kazuya, there you are! As you may have seen, we have run into a bit of trouble here."

"Less talking, more running!"

As they ran, the tavern owner's outraged shouts disappeared behind them, and the tight alley soon gave way to a wider path lined with stalls. Alarmed faces began to flash by, and the two brothers found themselves swallowed up in the midst of a crowd of marketplace goers.

"I think we lost him. Did we lose him?" Too short to check over the heads of the nearby passersby, Kazuya ambled back and forth. "There's no way that tub of lard kept up."

While still trying to catch his breath, Yū made what he hoped was a stern expression of disapproval. "He didn't seem like such an unreasonable fellow, Kazuya. He's just a man trying to make a living. I'm sure we could have worked something out."

The hold on his wrist slackened, and Kazuya frowned. "Never mind that. This wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't lost our money in the first place."

Rubbing his chin, Yū closed his eyes and thought deeply. "No matter how I think about it, it must have been that boy who ran into me. I hate to say it, but I noticed my pouch was gone right after that."

"That kid without the shoes?" Kazuya didn't sound convinced. "He looked more lost than anything to me."

Having put enough distance between themselves and the crime scene, the two brothers came to a stop, taking a moment to recollect their composure. The bustle of Omashu streamed around them, a river of ceaseless motion that broke and reformed around the two rocks in its path.

Despite their dire fiscal straits, seeing the famed mountain city in action brought a smile to Yū's face: The experience of their past week here had been every bit as interesting as he had hoped. He couldn't wait to tell Zaizen.

His younger brother's somewhat peeved voice broke through his reverie. "The fact that you're smiling has to mean you've got an idea, right? So? How are we going to get to Ba Sing Se now?"

Yū swallowed, hard. "That's a very good question, my dear brother…"

* * *

When the old man—or Ugai, as Eijun had come to learn—had referred to his caravan, Eijun had been expecting an entire fleet of carriages. But in reality, the caravan was comprised of three carriages: one for the merchandise, one for the merchant himself, and a final third for his bodyguards. Even with the relatively light load however, Eijun knew that it would be no small feat traversing across the entire Earth Kingdom continent to reach Ba Sing Se.

There were two other bodyguards besides Eijun: One was a short, heavyset earthbender named Fujio who largely kept to himself in his corner of the carriage when it wasn't his turn to steer. The other was a female non-bender named Akiko who, on the contrary, had to be one of the most outspoken people he'd ever met.

When Ugai first introduced Eijun to the group, Fujio raised a single eyebrow but didn't say anything.

Akiko on the other hand, burst into peals of laughter. "You've got to be kidding me, boss. I've got undergarments older than this kid."

Ugai grinned darkly. "He's an earthbender, first of all. And you wouldn't be laughing if you'd seen the way he moved."

This seemed to catch their attention, as Akiko stopped laughing and Fujio gave Eijun a second appraising look.

The first leg of the journey was largely uneventful, as the roads leading away from Omashu were frequented by many other travelers and merchants making their way all over the Earth Kingdom. As for the, judging by the constellations, the road was taking them eastward—in the complete opposite direction of the mountain that Eijun had spent the last year on with the General.

Sometimes at night, when they had stopped to camp and Eijun had nothing left to occupy his mind, he wondered how the General was doing, and whether he had shrank the cave back to its original size.

With the passing days, the number of people they saw traveling on the same road began to drop. As the roads grew more vacant, their caravan stopped increasingly earlier for the night.

"I hear it's been getting pretty bad… " Akiko said absentmindedly as she cleaned her crossbow, the light of the dancing flames reflecting in her eyes. "The bandits have been getting bolder around the roads to Ba Sing Se, and the king won't do anything about it."

"He'd be hard-pressed to do anything about it, when the bandits are the ones funding his reign," Fujio said dryly. He was currently roasting two prairie chickens they had caught earlier that day.

Eyes growing round, Akiko nervously looked around before drawing a finger to her lips. "Shh! If someone reports you, the king could have you put to death!"

"I'd like to see His Majesty actually _leave_ the city," Fujio grumbled. Turning towards Eijun, he held out one of the roasted chickens. "Here… eat, kid."

He didn't need any further encouragement; Eijun took the skewer and began to hungrily tear away at it, burning the inside of his mouth in his haste.

"Did no one teach you manners? Where's your 'thank you'?" asked Akiko, sounding more amused than anything.

"...Thank you," Eijun mumbled through a mouthful of chicken.

With a shared look of surprise, Fujio and Akiko fell silent and turned to their own meals.

Pressing his tongue against the raw roof of his mouth, Eijun was wondering whether the General was eating armadillo hare stew that night, when suddenly, the ground tremored. Eijun jumped to his feet, and an instant later, Fujio and Akiko followed suit. In the not so far distance, lights flashed intermittently in the darkness.

An alarmed Ugai poked his head out from the carriage. "What's going on?"

* * *

The sun had set, and their caravan had made camp for the night. Their 'caravan' being a varied, mismatched bunch—a collection of misfits hailing from all walks of life.

One was a lanky turnip farmer from northern Earth territory, down on his luck after several dry seasons and an unfortunate taste for gambling. Another was a disgraced monk from the Air Nomads, sent out by his teacher to redeem himself through searching for some rare religious documents. These were only the first stories shared around the campfire, but before the rest could share their tales, their drinks had reached their bellies and they had broken out into a song:

 _"It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se_  
 _But the girls in the city, they look so pretty_  
 _And they kiss so sweet, that you've really got to meet_ _  
The girls from Ba Sing Se!"_

Amidst the raucous singing, Kazuya made a face as he drained his drink—watered down with juice in consideration of his age, to his visible annoyance.

Laughing, Yū slapped his brother's back. "Lighten up, Kazuya. It's a fun song."

"Yeah, lighten up!" chimed in one of the men.

"How does it go again?" Yū asked eagerly. "It's a long way…?"

"It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se — "

"But the girls in the city, they look so pretty!"

"If Father could see you right now…" Kazuya muttered, his face burning red.

Suddenly, a dark shadow fell across the dancing light of the campfire. "Well, well. Aren't you lot having a good time?" Closing in on the words, a bulky, cloaked man strode in. He had quietly joined their group the previous night, and largely kept to himself since then. But now with the fire lighting up his features, Yū's immediate attention was drawn towards the odd assortment of items on his person: A fur-trimmed hood, a tattered belt, silken pants, and lumpy boots.

"You're more than welcome to join in on the fun," said Yū pleasantly.

"Is that so? How very kind of you." His stout features spreading into a grin, the man raised his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp whistle.

At the signal—for it had indeed, been a signal—several more bulky shadows emerged from behind the carriages. While they wore equally mismatched attire, the one thing they all had in common, was the swords they held on the ready by their sides.

The cloaked man, standing at their head, raised his blade. "You lot know the drill by now. Hand over your valuables, and we'll let you keep your heads at least."

"Bandits," a voice uttered in fearful surprise.

That certainly explained their diverse attire.

When several men behind Yū immediately reached for their own weapons, the cloaked man wagged a finger at them. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

"What would you do, then?" asked Yū.

"Hm?"

"What would you do if you were me?"

The cloaked man grinned; golden caps glinted back at Yū. "Got a mouth on you, don't you, boy? Didn't your parents ever teach you to stay quiet while the adults talk?"

At that, Kazuya abruptly stood up, his face white with anger. "How _dare_ you mongrels speak to my brother like that?"

Yū raised a hand, and Kazuya reluctantly fell back. "I don't know who you are, but this is a main trade route protected under the jurisdiction of Ba Sing Se. Any acts of banditry are akin to high treason against the king. Are you certain you wish to continue?"

"The king?" echoed the cloaked man. He threw his head back in a sharp laugh. "Ha! Well… he won't know, if there aren't any witnesses left, eh?"

Solemnly, Yū shook his head. "I'm sorry you feel that way."

The bandit creeping up behind him must have thought he was being stealthy, but Yū's years of training rendered his presence as noticeable as a flame in the darkness. Just as the man leapt out to grab him, Yū whirled around and taking the man by his sleeve, threw him over his shoulder.

For a moment, all eyes turned to the man groaning on the ground—then to Yū, who lowered himself into a defensive stance.

The cloaked man scoffed. "You really think you can take on all of us empty-handed, _boy_?"

"Probably not," Yū replied—and promptly, twin blades of fire burst into life from his fists.

It was the bandits' turn to balk: "Firebender," their leader hissed. Instead of retreating as Yū had hoped, however, he pointed his sword at him. "Get him, boys!"

With a roar, the rest of the bandits attacked, and the campsite erupted into chaos. Metal clashed against metal around Yū, as the other campers rallied their defense.

Focusing his gaze on the bandits' leader, Yū kicked aside the first pair of swords bearing down on him, and quickly blasted his way through the next few. Sensing Yū's pursuit, the leader took a step back. With a quick sweep of his surroundings, he noticed a group of unarmed travelers trying to blend into the background. Yū ducked under a swinging axe, hearing it cut shrilly through the air above him, and by the time he looked back up, the bandits' leader was reaching out to grab a hostage—when Kazuya jumped in, deflecting his sword away with his dagger.

Looking angry, the leader pushed harder against his blade, driving his brother back. Seeing that, Yū felt something deep inside his chest begin to seethe.

There were few things in the world that could make him lose his composure. In fact, there were exactly two of them, one of which was a deep-rooted fear of heights.

The other was anything that threatened his brother.

"Kazuya!" he shouted out in warning. At the sound of his voice, Kazuya dropped to the ground and rolled back. As soon as he was clear, Yū threw out his hand, and white-hot flames blasted out towards the bandit's leader.

Yū had just managed to glimpse the whites of the man's eyes as they widened, when the ground rumbled, and a sheet of rock erupted just in time to block the flames.

 _An earthbender?_

With another rumble, the rocks fell away, to reveal the bandits' leader, unscathed. There was another man besides him—or rather, a teenager. Wearing a pleased expression, he sported the beginnings of a beard, perhaps in an attempt to look older than he truly was.

"Good work, Jun-boy," said the bandits' leader, patting the teen's back. "I knew I could count on you."

* * *

As the earth continued to rumble and flames flashed in the distance, Fujio abruptly stood up and kicked dirt onto their campfire. The fire went out, plunging the area into darkness.

"That's a fight between benders, if I ever saw one. Best to stay out of it."

But the action seemed to be growing closer to them. Eijun was starting to make out the faint sounds of screams, raising goosebumps all along his arms. And the slight tremors in the earth, every time a body hit the ground—he knew it very well.

Eijun took in a deep breath. "What if there are innocent people there?"

A pause. "No such thing. It's every man for himself out here."

"Or woman," added Akiko's voice.

But he couldn't just sit here and wait, not when he could do something—not when he could feel his grandfather's armband squeezing his arm. Without responding, Eijun got up.

"Don't you even think about it," came Ugai's voice sharply. "I hired you to protect me, not to get killed in someone else's fight."

"I won't get killed." He leaned down and rested his palms on the ground; in a flash, he knew how many bodies were involved in the fight up ahead.

"If you leave, you're out of the caravan. You can say goodbye to Ba Sing Se… to finding your mother."

Eijun froze.

 _"She was won by a merchant who I know largely operates in Ba Sing Se."_

His arms began to tremble; a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. A moment of silence passed.

And then finally, he let out a slow exhale. Sitting down, he swallowed back the bitterness, letting it add to the black ball already in his pit.

"Very good," said Ugai smugly.

* * *

Thankfully, after the initial chaos, Yū's fellow travelers proved to be more than capable of holding their own against the attackers. With the monk and Kazuya taking over in defending the unarmed, and the others fighting off the remaining bandits, Yū found himself facing just their leader and their earthbender.

He drew it at last, in a single practiced motion: The sword that had remained unused by his side. "This is your last chance to escape," Yū warned. "I'm not going to hold back anymore."

To his credit, the bandits' leader no longer seemed entirely confident in their odds. Nonetheless, he readied his blade, and the earthbender lowered himself into a firm stance, before punching the air. As a boulder flew through the air towards him, Yū couldn't help but think that under a good teacher, the earthbender could go far. While his bending seemed self-taught, the fundamentals were all there...

It was over in a flash.

Yū's sword had been forged by the Fire Nation's greatest blacksmith, from obsidian rock retrieved from their most sacred volcano. It could withstand the hottest of flames without melting, and had been presented to Yū by his father on his coming-of-age ceremony. Its name was _Feng Huang,_ and it roared to life in Yū's hands, the searing blade slicing cleanly through the boulder, before finding its target: The bandits' leader. Yū could have taken his head off with ease, and from the man's paling face, his life was flashing before his eyes.

At the last instant, however, Yū changed its trajectory, swinging it downwards.

The man let out a scream, and his sword—hand still attached—flew through the air, before clattering on the ground. The surrounding bandits grew silent as their leader fell back, the smell of burnt flesh thick in the air.

Yū straightened up. "Begone. Never show your face on these trails again."

"Retreat," the bandits' leader gritted out, hunched over the stump of his arm.

As quickly as they had arrived, the bandits scrambled away. Some of the travelers made to pursue them, their blood still pumping from adrenaline, but when Yū didn't move, they lowered their swords as well. A great cheer broke out amongst the travelers: While they had some injuries, there had been no casualties, and they had not lost what meager possessions they owned.

"A toast, to the firebender!" They cried, raising their drinks to Yū, and soon, they were singing in unison again, as though the skirmish with the bandits had never occurred.

Such was the way of these roads, he thought soberly to himself.

Kazuya soon stepped back to Yū's side, and said in a low voice, "You should've finished that bandit off. Now, he will remember you."

With a smile, Yū patted his brother's head. "You are too young to be saying such things. You did well today."

Kazuya rolled his eyes, though he seemed mollified by the compliment. Meanwhile, Yū sat down besides the other men, and through the remainder of the night, he laughed and sang with the rowdiest of them. But in a distant part of his mind, he recalled the way the bandits' leader had looked at him.

His brother had shown wisdom beyond his years: For as long as the bandit lived, he would have to bear with what Yū had done to him. And he would not remember it as a mercy.

* * *

The new morning brought with it the light of day, and a continuation of their journey eastwards. Eijun kept his distance from the others, and when it was his turn to sit alone in the carriage carrying the merchandise, he took to his role gladly. After what had passed, he didn't think he could stand to talk to anyone. Instead, he busied himself with thoughts of how the General would have directed his training if he was there with him:

 _"You may not be touching the earth, but you must still strive to listen to it. You must always listen for the sounds of life."_

Unfortunately, even in Eijun's imagination, he could hardly understand the General.

Time passed slowly, and yet quickly, as it seemed to do when one was traveling. As the grasslands eventually turned to dense forestland, the air grew thick with fog and the smell of brackish water, and shadowy cliffs began to appear in the distance.

One day, Eijun opened his eyes, sensing how the carriages had come to an abrupt stop. When he looked outside, all he could see was blue, stretching out into the horizon. For a moment, Eijun didn't understand—then his mouth fell open. He stepped down from the carriage to get a closer look, and realized with a jolt that it _was_ water, sloshing against the shore.

 _The sea?_

No—the water was too still to be the sea, meaning it had to be a lake. A _large_ lake. Still, it had been a long time since he'd last seen so much water. In fact, now that he thought about it, it had been back in his village, when he'd climbed a tree and looked down upon the world.

Eijun inhaled deeply. Though the air tasted somewhat differently than it had in his village, the familiar smell of salt and brine felt comforting. And the open sky beyond the sea was just as beautiful as he'd remembered it.

"Well?" he heard Akiko ask. "How are we supposed to get across?"

"I've arranged for a ship to pick us up," responded Ugai, stepping out from his carriage and raising a pointed finger. "Look—it's coming now."

In the distance, a dark shape approached them at a steady pace. As the others began discussing how to get the carriages onboard, Eijun's gaze drew slowly over the distance. A ship was starting to come into view, with full-length battens and green sails. It looked very different from what he remembered of the slavers' sleek ships, which had flown blue flags and had been much closer to the water. But at the same time, he felt as though he'd seen something like it before...

 _"A... ship?" asked Eijun. "What's that?"_

 _A man, his features blurred, smiled down at him. "It's something that can take you far, far away." A large hand patted Eijun on his head. "One day, when you're bigger, maybe you'll get to sail on one."_

While the others waved out at the approaching ship, Eijun closed his eyes.

* * *

There were many paths leading to Ba Sing Sei, the choice of which to take being dictated primarily by one's means. The most direct land-borne path went straight through bandit territory, a surefire way to forfeit one's belongings, if not one's life. The safest and surest path skirted the treacherous mountains leading into the city, and took an additional week's travel.

The caravan that Yū and Kazuya had joined, however, was taking neither of these. Turning their ostrich horses away from the well-trodden paths at the central trading post, they headed instead down a dusty path that soon took them into forestland.

Their guide was a toothy old man who assured them he had guided travelers that way for over a decade now. "Trust me, there's no one around here who knows these roads like ol' Wudao here. Follow me, and you'll be at the gates of Ba Sing Se by the end of the week."

"The end of the _week_?" one of the other travelers repeated dubiously. "That's impossible. Not unless you're crossing the Central Lake, and that'll take a ship."

"I've always been advised to stay away from the waters around Ba Sing Se," added another traveler.

Wudao tapped his temple with a gnarled finger. "Nothing is impossible if you tread lightly," he said mysteriously.

* * *

The ship's hull soon bumped against the shore, and as several men rushed to the ship's side with the gangway, Ugai raised a smug hand to stop them. "No need," he said, motioning to Eijun and Fujio.

Sharing a look, the two of them brought their bodies low, and in unison, bended the ground below their carriages. With a rumble, the carriages rose to the level of the ship's deck, and Akiko guided the squawking ostrich horses onboard.

As many merchant ships as Eijun had once seen sailing past his village, he'd never actually been on one before. Just as he boarded the ship, he felt the wooden floor rock under his feet, and he jumped in reflex. The sailors running around him grinned knowingly, but after a moment, Eijun felt himself relax. It was strange, feeling the increased distance between his body and the earth. But he could hear the gulls in the sky crying out to one another, and the sound of the water lapping at the sides of the boat, and Eijun thought it wasn't so bad.

Akiko called out, "Well, c'mon then. We haven't got all day." Eijun looked back to see Fujio still on the shore, eyeing the ship with distaste. "What, are you afraid of the water?" she added teasingly.

"There isn't a single earthbender alive who'd willingly get on a boat," grumbled Fujio.

However reluctantly, he eventually got onboard, and the ship soon took off. It glided smoothly through the still water, and Eijun sat on the deck, feeling the wind on his face.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" said one of the sailors. "And this is a lake. It's a whole other experience sailing out in the open waters. I never feel as alive as I do when at sea."

Eijun nodded, and as the sailor walked away, he returned his gaze to his surroundings. The shore had long since disappeared, and the only thing he could see around them now was water. The sun had risen high in the sky, reflecting down on its surface; despite the chatter of the other people on the ship, being so far away from the earth, Eijun felt alone.

That was, until Eijun suddenly realized with a jolt that there was something dark approaching them from the water. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts, he hadn't noticed it appearing.

He wasn't the only one who'd realized, as Fujio remarked to Ugai, "Did you request another ship?"

But no—while it was still too far away to make out, whatever that was coming towards them was too sleek, too quick. A shiver ran down Eijun's spine, and he tensed.

That was no ship.

* * *

To Wudao's credit, he did seem to be quite familiar with the path, pointing out landmarks and edible plants along the way. The misgiving looks the group had all shared between themselves slowly gave way to cautious trust as the woodland turned into rocky terrain.

And then finally, after a hard day's travel, their trail opened up to a giant lake. At first, their caravan silently filed out onto the shore, each traveler's face looking aghast. Blinking, Yū looked this way and that—but no matter where he looked, he couldn't see a way across the lake. He held his breath, waiting for the inevitable —

"You cannot be serious," came Kazuya's flat voice. "You cannot have been wasting our time."

Like a volcano waking from its sleep, the caravan exploded into furious cries as the travelers turned on their aged guide. To Yū's surprise, however, Wudao did not seem fazed. Waving aside their outburst, he carefully took off his leather sandals before dipping his feet into the water. As they watched, he began to wade his way into the lake. When the water had reached Wudao's neck, leaving just his head, the traveler besides Yū spat on the ground.

"That's two days I'll never get back," he said bitterly.

In a collective grumble, the others began to steer their mounts back in the direction they'd come from. The ostrich dragons snorted, their feathers dusted and worn; the carriages' wheels squeaked from overuse.

"Brother, come on," called Kazuya.

His eyes still fixed on the water, Yū crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, would you look at that."

Kazuya looked back, and dropped his mount's reins: Standing on top of the water, Wudao waved back at them.

"He must be a waterbender," murmured a voice.

"No, he's a non-bender…"

Wudao cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted something at them. The wind carried his words away, but Yū already knew what he had called back them.

"Tread lightly," he repeated with a smile.

* * *

"W-what is that?" Akiko cried out.

"Protect me!" His voice strangled in fear, Ugai backed away.

Eijun looked over the side of the rocking ship; the surrounding water had turned dark. There was something large circling the ship below the surface, and it was in a sickening rush that Eijun realized that they were far from being alone. There was as much life in the water as in the earth, and in a distant corner of his mind, he thought he could hear the General berating him for his foolishness.

Then, as quickly as it had happened, the water grew still, and the deck stopped rocking. An unnatural silence fell over the ship; after a moment, Ugai's face popped out of a heap of ropes.

"Is it… gone?"

But he had spoken too soon; as if in response, everything around them began to rumble. Then, before anyone could shout, something exploded out from the water's surface, sending tidal waves in every direction.

Horrified, Eijun's gaze followed up from the water to the sky—but it was as though there was no end to it. Whatever it was, it was massive, as it swayed over their ship, salt water dripping from its scales and drenching everyone on board.

Another beat passed. And then —

"Sea serpent!" A voice screamed.

* * *

 **A/N:** Yū = Chris

Someone on twitter said something about this story and I remembered I had a draft. So here's the rest of it. This chapter was getting really long, so I actually had to split it in half.

Some characters might be coming off as really out of character, but they'll grow into their canon personalities, I promise.


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